When she and Iridian returned to the waiting room, the other three were watching apprehensively. Iridian slumped in a seat between Rio and Wiley. The only other open place was too close to Noor, so Adda stayed standing to maintain a comfortable amount of personal space. “It’s no fun, but that’s about how long it takes, so just get it over with,” Iridian said. “The ITA can fuck right the hell off.” The others grumbled in agreement, and Rio stood to get her nannite culture removed next.
Adda subvocalized, I want to keep studying intelligences. There’s so much we don’t know.
Iridian glanced over at her with an eyebrow raised. Okay. When you’re ready. What brought this on?
That was a line of questioning that’d seemed too obvious to construct an argument for. I scared you back there. Again. Weren’t you going to ask me to find another area of expertise?
Iridian turned toward Adda more fully, pain from what’d happened on Vesta, or maybe some other mistake from the past, written on her face. Ever since Iridian had learned what Adda intended to do with her life, she’d only tolerated Adda’s obsession with intelligences. They’d had the “Then leave!” argument over it back on Earth, and afterward they’d clung to each other tighter than ever. But terrible things had happened since then.
After a moment, she took both of Adda’s hands in hers. “Shit happens, the worst kind of shit, no matter what you’re doing. Sometimes the dangerous thing has to be done whether you have all the intel you need or not. You make mistakes, or Murphy the Lawmaker is just not on your side one day. It doesn’t mean you give up. It means you get better. Study what went wrong. Train harder. Clear up whatever’s going on in your head that made you fuck up, if that’s what it’s about.”
Wiley added a quiet “Hell yeah,” still staring into the middle distance.
Noor snorted. “Do you really have to do that dangerous thing, though?”
“That’s a good question.” Iridian held Adda’s eyes. “Another question a person might ask is, ‘Do I have to be the one to do it?’ If you get a yes and a yes, so be it, but we’re in for a tough time.”
All right, Adda said to Iridian. Clearing up what’s in my head could take a while. It’s literal as well as figurative in my case.
In the meantime, the first challenge in escaping the intelligences’ reach by crossing the interstellar bridge with Dr. Björn’s expedition was surviving until Dr. Björn allowed them to go. They had no local money, and they’d spent almost all of what Adda and Iridian had earned with Captain Sloane’s crew to get to Yăo Station. Now they couldn’t afford to leave.
CHAPTER 16 Days until launch: 30
Iridian’s little crew had liberated more drones than Shingetsu needed to send all her messages out to the families of Yăo residents. Since Adda still expected the Odin Razum and Mairie to take the drones back within a few days, everybody appreciated the extra machines. Adda had reserved space on one for queries and messages related to the potential implant vulnerability.
The priestess, or whatever title she held, gave Iridian a couple of extra drones to sell on the condition that the temple got a cut. Pel auctioned them off at a dock far from Shingetsu’s, while Rio, Iridian, and Wiley stood by to look formidable to potential thieves while Adda and Noor stayed out of the way. That gained them enough local currency to buy real food to celebrate their victory and figure out what happened next.
While they ate, they compiled a list of search queries, update requests, and messages to send out with the temple’s drones. Pel would take the risk of clearing out his Vestan account, the last bit of savings that Adda hadn’t already transferred to their father on Earth. If Pel converted it to Yăo Station’s currency and one of their port neighbors sold halfway decent printer material, then they could get outfitted and start looking for work.
While the prison escapees had been getting their nannite cultures removed, Pel had used one of Shingetsu’s drones to reach the Patchwork and update all his social feeds, including those written by ZV Group soldiers. “Chato said their ship got hit by some serious systems hacker while they were docking on Ganymede,” he said, referencing one of the ZVs who’d been on Barbary Station. “Copied a bunch of vids and comms stuff off and almost rammed the ship into the port mod. Nobody was too badly hurt, but it scared them. And then the ITA boarded, looking for us, but once they were sure we weren’t there, they left.”
“Who got hurt?” Rio asked. “Are they okay?”
“He didn’t say. I’ll ask.”
Even though Pel had brought the news, Noor was looking hard at Adda and Iridian. “Could the awakened AIs have done that?”
“Absolutely,” Iridian said. “It’s not even the first time they’ve hassled the ZVs.”
“Did you know they were going to try something?” Rio asked, more angrily this time.
“No.” Iridian glanced at Adda.
Adda was already watching Pel. It was unusual for her to have ignored her comp for this long while other people were talking. “After Barbary, they only attacked members of the ZV Group who talked about them. Chato was involved in one of those too, I think. I didn’t expect them to follow the ZVs. They might not have intended to hurt the Not for Sale or the crew.”
“But they did, didn’t they?” asked Noor. “Maybe staying on Yăo isn’t such a bad idea after all.”
“If you thought it was such a bad idea, why are you still here?” Rio asked.
“Have you seen a single sober pilot since we docked? Because I haven’t. I’m not flying out with any of these people, even if I could come up with a fair trade in services.” Noor took a large bite of noodles and chewed morosely.
The fact that he’d been looking for a way off so soon made Iridian trust him less than ever. If he’d stick around, though, she saw a lot of ways to use his skills. His technical expertise overlapped with Adda’s a bit, but he seemed to have years more digital infiltration and ID spoofing experience than she did.
“I’m writing to Dr. Björn,” Adda said. “Asking ver if we can join vis expedition is the least expensive tactic.”
“How’s that conversation going to go?” Pel asked around a mouthful of fried-eggish protein and stuff that looked like rice but had all the flavor and texture of the carton it was served in. “Sorry for destroying your fucking life, can we tag along on your dream vacation?”
Adda was certain that the AIs would install themselves in Yăo Station eventually and go after the crew in person, more or less, but Iridian had doubts about the expedition as a solution to that problem. “The last time Björn saw me, ve threw coffee at my head. We have to offer ver something.”
“Ve’s the one heading up that expedition to cross the interstellar bridge, isn’t ve?” asked Noor.
Adda nodded, and Iridian said, “Yeah, that’s ver.”
“And you want to go with ver? Out there?” Wiley waved his hand vaguely to his right. “The newsfeeds said the science probes made it, but who knows for sure? I wouldn’t want to be the first one on that ride.”
“If the scientists said the probes made it, then they made it,” said Iridian. “Suns look different from empty space on every recording mechanism there is. Unless you’re one of those people who think somebody drew all the pics, and if you are, you need to learn about imagery analysis. Anyway, that’s the point of exploration. Somebody’s got to go and find out what the bots can’t. Why not us?” Impractical as this solution might’ve been, if they somehow pulled it off, they’d be the first people seeing this new star system with their own eyes. She reached for Adda under the table and squeezed her thigh. Adda smiled, and yeah, it’d be amazing to stand in the light of a new sun beside her. “More importantly, if we get out of reach, then the AIs will have no reason to go after you.”
“Rumor is you kidnapped Björn off Mars,” Rio pointed out. “True?”
“Deimos,” Adda said. “One of Mars’s moons.”
“So that’s why not you, I reckon.” Rio bit into whatever synthesized meat she was consuming
with finality.
“Doesn’t that seem a little extreme, anyway?” Pel asked. “I mean, Thrinacia is so far from here. Before the interstellar bridge, they didn’t even think about sending those big colony ships out there.”
“The interstellar bridge shortens the trip,” Iridian said. “As long as you stay on it, Thrinacia’s sun is the closest star to ours.”
“Won’t you all feel better if there aren’t fucking awakened AIs trying to get into your brain?” Noor asked. “I know I will. If getting you two out there exploring gets the AIs off our backs, I’m all for it.”
“They’re not after me,” Pel grumbled. “Who will I call when I get tangled up in some other mess? I’ll miss you two.” Iridian would miss a lot about populated space, Pel included, but keeping Adda away from Casey was more important than anything else.
“Tell me next time.” Rio smirked at him. “I can always use a good laugh.”
Noor ignored the rude gesture Pel offered Rio. “What do you need to join the expedition?”
“Money, political support, or something Dr. Björn cares about,” Adda said. “All of those, ideally.” They ate in silence for a while. “I’ll write the Vestan station council, too,” she said. “Since Oxia is cutting so many corners and defunding the project, the council might be able to force Oxia to give the expedition to the University of Mars. Dr. Björn should appreciate that. Ve used to teach there.”
“You might as well write Sloane directly,” Iridian said. “It’ll get back to the captain sooner or later.” After their refusal to play along with Sloane’s endgame on Vesta, the captain would probably laugh and ignore it, but working for Oxia had infuriated Sloane. Maybe the captain would want to undo one of the worst things the crew had done on Oxia’s orders.
If Adda did somehow get them on the expedition, it’d be an exciting way to lie low and avoid the ITA. She and Iridian would be together in a place where nothing wanted to separate them or take over Adda’s brain. It’d be a long-overdue honeymoon.
Wiley had been staring at his food instead of eating it, but now he refocused on the conversation and Adda. “Won’t an official letter to the Vestan council get back to the AIs, too? You said they were based there.”
“They were, but they left,” Pel said.
“It may get back to them,” said Adda, “but I think reminding all those people about their involvement in Dr. Björn’s . . . Well, it wasn’t kidnapping, exactly . . .”
“Um, I know from kidnapping,” said Pel. “That’s what it was.”
“Ve signed the contract voluntarily,” Adda argued. “Anyway, all the council members benefited from Oxia kickbacks, so they were all involved in either getting Dr. Björn to or keeping ver on Vesta. Now they’re in a position to get ver out of the Oxia contract. I think it’s worth asking. And, again, asking is free.”
“It’d give ver a better chance than ve had yesterday,” said Iridian. “And if it happens to actually work, ve’ll owe us big enough that ve might let us join up. Not bad.”
“And you’re sure that once you’re gone, Casey won’t come after us?” Pel asked.
When it came to Casey, Iridian couldn’t be sure of anything. “That’s our best guess.”
“Well, the ZVs will take care of me,” said Rio. “Maybe you three could hire on with us.”
Wiley’s expression was thoughtful, Pel grinned, and Noor shook his head. “Oh my gods, no,” said Pel. “I can’t do all that ‘yes ma’am, no sir’ stuff.” He’d been respectful enough on Sloane’s crew, but formality and order were much more important among the ZVs.
“Why would I want to do that when I can make money on my own?” Noor asked. “I’ve got an identity hidden away in Albana Station on Vesta. If I can get there, I’m gone, and good luck to the rest of you. Relying on a best guess sounds like a good way to get dead, doesn’t it?” He glared at the tabletop, lips tightly shut and jaw muscles twitching.
“Can we count on your help until you find your way to Albana?” Iridian asked. When Noor nodded, she said, “Okay. That just leaves finding some cash to live on and dealing with the awakened AIs.”
“Oh, that’s all,” Noor said in a way that implied that was plenty.
* * *
Living on Yăo Station would be a hell of a lot cheaper than Vesta or Ceres, but cheap didn’t count for much without income. Adda had only just started her search for ways to join Dr. Björn’s expedition, so they’d be on Yăo a while. Iridian, Wiley, and Rio listed searchable terms that might lead to the kind of work they could do. Noor, Adda, and Iridian took their collected queries to the drones Shingetsu had asked them to recapture, and Shingetsu showed them how to send those out while Pel, Rio, and Wiley scouted the station for somewhere to live that didn’t have chimes playing and incense burning at all hours of the day and night.
Hours later, the drones returned from their trip to Patchwork range with the results people wanted. Pel, Rio, and Wiley had found them somewhere tolerable to stay, which Rio described as a “defensible closet with fewer bugs than the other ones.” While they went off to get Pel’s money converted, Iridian, Adda, and Noor took over a meditation room in the temple to review what Adda had found.
The last time Iridian had seen Adda that happy was when she’d found out Sloane had gotten a workspace generator installed in their Rheasilvia Station apartment. “I was right! The implant manufacturers outsource firmware development to just a few companies. Noor, Biometallic Technologies made the firmware for both of ours!”
Noor raised an eyebrow, probably in response to Adda’s enthusiasm as much as her words. “Thanks. Now I have an answer for that trivia-night question I always forget about.”
Iridian frowned at him. Aside from the rudeness, Adda was giving Noor a slightly head-cocked expression that meant she couldn’t tell whether he was being sarcastic. “How does knowing who made your implant firmware help us?” Iridian asked.
“Casey and Mairie have some way to use developers’ neural implant nets to influence people faster than I’ve ever heard of,” Adda said. From what she’d said in the past, Iridian gathered that although the jack that connected the implant to comps and consoles was always changing and improving, there was only one neural implant net configuration that allowed devs’ workspaces to function. “I think they’re using a vulnerability in our implant firmware to do it.”
“Oh gods, are you serious?” Noor looked like he was about to be sick. “That’s what that pulse was in the water treatment plant, wasn’t it? Something fucking with our implants?”
“Exactly,” said Adda. “Mairie’s signal approach is unique, as far as I can tell. It’s had decades to influence the Odin Razum the usual way. It’s possible that Casey showed it the vulnerability, and when Mairie put that together with our Marsat IDs, it must’ve looked like a perfect solution to its lack of supervision.”
“This wouldn’t be the first time Casey shared how-to-fuck-people-over tips with other AIs,” said Iridian. It was one of the creepiest things Casey did.
“So I think that if Biometallic Technologies fixes that vulnerability, we can keep Casey and Mairie from influencing us so quickly,” Adda said. Noor dragged both hands through his hair, exposing the jack in his temple for a moment, eyes widening with every word Adda said. “I’m working on the description now, but it’s going to be up to them to test it or coordinate with the Odin Razum. This is the first vulnerability I’ve ever reported! I’ll show it to you before I send it so you can—”
“Gods, do you really think they’d do that?” Noor groaned. “They’ll delete your message from every system they have and say, ‘What report?’ if the truth comes out.”
Another disturbing possibility had just occurred to Iridian. She touched her scalp above where the ITA had put a gods-damned implant in her head. She couldn’t wait to get rid of it. “Is that vulnerability in whatever the ITA put in us?”
“From what I saw in the clinic, yours is a localized device.” Adda was still looking worriedly at No
or, whose jaw was twitching again. “Something that small couldn’t have created the simulation you described. Its primary function would’ve been regulating the nannite culture, which coordinated with a pseudo-organic system that maintained the sim. That implant wouldn’t have the same firmware Noor’s and my nets have.”
“All right,” Iridian said, “so what’ll fixing that vulnerability take?”
“The ideal scenario is that we tell Biometallic, which I’m just about to do. They’ll make the corrections and push a new firmware version out to our implants with an explanation for everybody else with a neural implant net like ours.” Adda was still watching Noor, whose reddening face and hands fisted in his pant legs were making Iridian wonder just what kind of tirade he was keeping himself from shouting. “But if they won’t fix it—”
“Could you please join us in reality, where they fucking won’t?” Noor snapped.
“Watch it,” said Iridian.
Maybe Iridian was imagining that she could hear his teeth grinding, but she doubted it. Noor leaned away from Adda and waved stiffly for her to keep talking. “If they won’t fix it based on my description, which they should,” she added defensively, “we know someone who can analyze it and tell Biometallic what needs to be fixed. And if Biometallic still won’t fix it when we’ve pointed out all the problems, then the modder probably can.”
That’d be Kanti, the modder on Ceres who’d put in Iridian’s and Adda’s comms implants. After all the trouble the two of them had caused in Ceres Station, getting to that shop without the ITA arresting them would require a good disguise and a lot of luck. Adda had done it once, but if the ITA was smart, that would’ve motivated them to put even more security measures in place.
Noor looked thoroughly unimpressed with this objective. “How do all these ‘probablys’ and ‘I thinks’ keep the awakened AIs out of our fucking heads? We need to take the source material—”
Gravity of a Distant Sun Page 22